Are you confused about what good nutrition actually is? Do you wonder what you should believe from all the conflicting claims about what to eat? Have you tried many a diet and stopped because they did not work for you? Are you concerned that eating healthy meals means eating things that don’t taste good?
Good nutrition is actually very simple. It is eating whole, fresh real foods just as nature intended. When they come from an environment that fosters the best health for that animal or plant, and they are properly prepared, these foods are delicious and nutritious.
The current food guidelines say to consume half your grains as whole, eat only lean protein, avoid cholesterol, and drink fat-free or low fat milk. These recommendations are not based on sound research, and certainly are not working to help people to be healthy and disease free. If you want to be healthy, it is time to adopt a different approach.
A Nourishing Traditions diet is based on understanding human physiology, current research, and the history of what healthy people have eaten for thousands of years. Dr. Weston A. Price, DDS traveled around the world in the 1030’s and studied and documented the diet of healthy people eating their traditional foods. Our physiology and genetics have not changed for at least 400,000 years. The diet of humans has always included animal products (including reptiles and insects), plants and seeds. This has been called the paleo diet, paleolithic diet, caveman diet, primal diet, hunter gatherer diet, stone age diet and primitive diet.
It is only in the last 10,000 years, since the Agricultural Revolution, that we have cultivated grains and domesticated animals. By 1910, modern refining of grains, sugar and vegetable oils had stripped many of our foods of their nutrition. We have gradually added more chemicals and additives to foods. We have created factory farms where animals are confined, fed unnatural food, injected with chemicals, drugs and hormones. Grains have been hybridized to create larger yields, and agriculture includes many chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.
As a result, since the early 1900’s we have unprecedented, epidemic increasing numbers of people with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, hypertension, behavioral problems, depression, arthritis, dental decay, infertility and more.
Good nutrition is a huge topic. Here we will start by introducing the idea of nutrient dense foods.
What are Nutrient Dense Foods?
- Nutrient dense foods are defined by the ratio of nutrients to calories. The more highly nutrient dense a food is, the more nutrients it provides per calorie.
- Another factor in defining nutrient dense foods is how important the particular nutrient is to key physiological processes. The fat soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D, E and K2) and minerals are the most important, absolutely critical, nutrients to our health.
The most nutrient dense foods, widely available and accepted by modern food preferences, include:
- Seafood, especially shellfish and fish eggs (wild, not farmed)
- Liver and other organ meat (from grass fed animals)
- Egg yolk (from chickens eating greens and bugs)
- Raw whole dairy products, especially butter (from grass fed animals)
- Naturally raised meats: grass fed beef, lamb, poultry, pork and wild game
Notice that this list does not include grains, particularly refined grains, or fruits. It especially does not include processed foods such as vegetable oils, sugar, soft drinks or caffeine. These junk foods have calories, but very few of the critical nutrients. Many of them displace other foods that would provide us with the nutrition we absolutely need to be healthy today and into the future.
To Your Vibrant Health!
Veronica Tilden, DO